Following a great comment by Ian Stevenson on my previous post of ‘When Should a Startup be Looking for Investment?’ it has prompted me to write this short blog post.

One element I had left out of the diagram was the importance of relationship building in the investment process. Ian’s point was that while a startup is going through the process of establishing product/market fit that they should be building relationships with investors so that when it does become time to raise capital to accelerate the business that they have a good understanding of you and your business.

I am in the position where I don’t require investment at the moment but will need to start assessing the possibilities in the future. I think this sounds fantastic and I have always thought that it is a good idea and in my interest (I wil be along at Engage Invest Expoloit hosted by Informatics Ventures on Thursday); but I have always been unsure if the investment community are willing to invest their time and effort in getting to know very early stage businesses. I have been to a few of these events now and the investors only seem to be interested in talking to companies that are looking for money now and offer high rates of return.

I started writing this blog primarily to raise awareness of myself and my business and to share experience and learning but hopefully some people in the investment community take notice and this can be the beginning of a relationship…

Thanks for bringing this to my attention Ian, if you are an investor or are a startup going through this process I’d love to hear your thoughts and opinions and if you’re at EIE give me a shout.